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Monday 4th March 2013

No workshop time today, instead it was Noel time! Received an email yesterday from Noel to confirm arrangements for today, it read in part "..meet me at Bankstown at 10 a.m. From there we will go to Rouse Hill and then to Les, to show him the guards. After that, back to Bankstown, then to Fineline in your Coupe to show Karl..". Met Noel at Bankstown from whence we departed for Rouse Hill to pick up the 'guards(fenders) and a new set of tyres for his Coupe. The guards are a pair sourced from the US to replace the pair on his Coupe while the tyres are a set of 4 WWW 7.00 x 16" Radials to replace the set of 4 WWW 7.00 x 16" Cross plys he was going to use. Anybody in Oz need a set of 4 never used, in fact never been on a rim, WWW 7.00 x 16" Cross plys? Please contact Noel if you do. For more info see the ads in the last couple of Packardian magazines and this one on the PACA Website(scroll down).

The day started out well, for one thing it was a fine and sunny day, something we've been lacking in Sydney for a while now. But the Ute Noel borrowed was full of rubbish, most of which had to be unloaded before we left to make room for it's precious Packard cargo. Then, on arriving at Rouse Hill, while the 'guards were there, the tyres were not! Apparently the wrong size had been sent so Noel has another wait until the correct sized ones arrive. One "thing" that was there was a very original 1905 Cadillac(I think?) which had also been imported from the US. Looks like a genuine survivor which only needs minor fixing and tidying up! Then with the 'Guards on board the Ute, it was off to see Les, who had made about 30 body mount rubbers for Noel's Coupe. While at Les's saw the '36 120B Convertible Coupe he has been working on for a PACA member and which is now close to completion.

Leaving Les, returned to Bankstown and my Coupe. From Bankstown it was off to Fineline at Moorebank where both Noel's Coupe and '39 120 Touring Sedan are presently residing. In addition to the work on the Coupe, Fineline are touching up a few scrapes on Fleurette to pretty her up for the Packard National Rally in less than a fortnights time. It's almost ready, with a rear 'guard waiting to go back on. But the main reason for taking my Coupe over was so that Carl could look it over as a reference for the work being done on Noels Coupe. Carl was pleased with what he saw, answering some questions he had about a number of fitment and equipment issues. Besides the body mount rubbers, Noel also took over some nuts and bolts and door rubbers for fitment purposes. Noel also has to take over some more parts and panels from Bankstown, which he'll do later this week. Included in these are the "mudflaps" which go inside the rear 'guards. He'd identified one but not the other, because it was the same basic shape as the ones on Fleurette. Here, I have to admit I didn't recognise the other one either, my excuse being that when I'd looked at mine it was from an upside down position about 5 years ago! Don't think that excuse carried much weight with Noel, who on looking at my Coupe immediately recognised the errant panel sitting on his shelf. Noel 1, Mal 0.

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Mal, That 05 Cadillac looks more like a 1908 International High Wheeler to me. Any experts out there who can confirm?
What a fantastic original survivor
David

David,

Once again hoisted on my own petard. Back in 2007 I saw a 1908 Model D International Buggy which is very similar and which I sampled first hand. But I did try to give myself a bit of wriggle room by saying this...."1905 Cadillac(I think?)"

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Quote:

Mal, what you vividly described as horizontally opposed 2 cylinder is a so-called boxer engine.



[picture source: www.motorrad-news.com]

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Tuesday 5th March 2013

Back at the workshop for a couple of hours this morning. After arriving Wade went round to Brookers Brakes and picked up the 2 new lines which they'd made up for Roy. Yesterday Wade had bled Roy's brakes but at the conclusion of that exercise there were a number of leaks evident thanks to the old lines on the diff housing. First up the left side line was bent and massaged into shape and fitted.

But before the right side line could be done we had a visit from Kevin and Barbara, long time PACA members. They brought over my new club name badge, I'd lost mine over a year ago. There were also three others, which I'll pass on at the National Rally in a couple of weeks time, acting as deliveryman to the interstate members concerned. Besides the name badges they also brought over a wealth of old Rally badges, Packard emblem pins, keyrings, a Packard crested ashtray, a Packard logo'd digital watch and other assorted Packard logo'd memorabilia. All this, I'll take with me to the Rally and try and sell to help boost PACA's funds. Thankyou Kevin and Barbara.

Next was the right side line, bent and fitted around the back of the diff housing. All fittings then checked, tightened, the master cylinder topped up and the brakes bled. During bleeding the master cylinder was topped up once and again after they were bled. Dropped Roy lower on the hoist and put 3 of the 4 wheels back on, the fourth being the right front. The right front wheel will go on following Peter Packards advice of 6th February of "..The side panels are more easily removed from under the guard...You may have to undo the fuel line at the carby but I always remove the panel from under the guard. Try it during the assembly phase..". Hope you're right Peter. With 3 of the 4 wheels on Roy was lowered further and the rear axle nuts properly tightened and split pinned. Left Wade to it at that point. But will return tomorrow with my Coupe for it's pre Rally mechanical inspection and service.

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Wednesday 6th March 2013

Almost didn't drive the Coupe down to the workshop this morning because on trying to start it, it didn't. Turned the key on pushed the starter button and no response! But, there was a quick solution, under the bonnet(hood), with the key still on, and pushed the button on the starter solenoid and away it went. After that, during the course of the day, a fair number of starts made but didn't need to resort to the under the bonnet method, in seat was fine. At the workshop, before turning to the Coupe, addressed Roy's needs first. Because of the missing, and new points and cap not yet to hand, turned to checking the plugs. Besides being very sooty in appearance, they looked fine except for one which was completely closed up with no gap at all. So into the blasting cabinet and after clean up and regapping they went back in. A test fire up and short run showed the missing was still there but better than before. Then out with the plugs again, one by one, for examination. I hadn't done that first time round. Examination showed all OK with no closed up plug gaps. Thought being that maybe a valve had hit and closed up the plug, but it's more likely Mal dropped it before it went back in! Then it was off for a test run along the usual route. Still missing but that should be rectified shortly when the parts arrive. Tested well with no noises from the rebuilt diff, brakes work well and don't pull and the engine ran well in the circumstances. Once the points and cap are installed Wade will be driving Roy to and from home for a day or two to ensure all is well.

Then it was the Coupe's turn. Backed into the workshop, always raise a sweat doing that irrespective of the weather, visibility being limited and necessitating an S shaped passage to get onto Wade's hoist. Managed that with Wade indicating and calling directions with a few shuffles along the way to get pointed in the right directions. Once up on the hoist first thing was draining the oil. While that was draining, attended to all the grease points underneath. All went well on that part except for a pair of plugs on the front lower arms, one each side, which popped off when I attempted to remove the grease gun from the nipple attached to them. After removal of the front wheels, to improve access, the caps were refitted and those points successfully regreased. Was thinking of adjusting the brakes, but the spin test administered by Wade indicated they probably didn't need adjustment. As we are going on a long highway trip it wasn't felt to introduce any unnecessary drag, and with the brakes both feeling solid and working well, left them as they were. With the undercar stuff finished, including a close inspection of all areas and reinstalling the sump plug, the Coupe was lowered but remained on the hoist. Removed the old oil filter and cleaned out the filter housing. It was just dirty with no sign of sludge, unlike when it was rebuilt a few years ago with a couple of inches of sludge in the filter housing at that time. New filter in, then refilled with 7 litres(about 7 quarts) of oil, which showed above full on the dipstick, then started her up. Ran well, no knocks(there shouldn't be but I always worry) and no leaks, also a worry. Turned then to the plugs which on removal one by one, learnt something from Roy, all looked to be burning well. After cleaning found I was 2 plug seals short. Found one still in the plug recess in the head and it was bent! Possibly a contributor to a slight miss which has been evident for a while. The other seal? I remember now there was a metallic clink when I was removing the plugs, it's probably on the workshop floor. On learning this Wade dove into his stock of old plugs only to discover all the 10mm ones were missing their seals! No worries, into the NOS plugs, Wade has some but doesn't use them having found they just don't perform after umpteen years in a box. The seals donated came from a pair of 'PROXY' brand plugs, some plug collector out there is probably gnashing his teeth in frustration in reading this. Regapped the now complete plugs, some being slightly over the recommended 0.028", reinstalled and fired up again. All well, then checked the timing, and a surprise. Was running about 20 degrees advanced! Some head scratching as to why, until Wade found the distributor could be turned by hand! That prompted more head scratching as to how that could have happened? No answers, so using the timing light reset to 6 degrees advanced and tightened up the distributor. On fire up, almost instantaneously after hitting the button, the engine idled very smoothly and silently just like a Packard should.

Turned then to the exterior of the Coupe, it still needs refitting of various components from the paint touch up work. My major concern was reinstalling the beading between the left front mudguard(fender) and the bonnet(side) panel. Although the front wheels had gone back on previously the left front came off again to allow better access from underneath. Then with Wade up a ladder, probably not great workshop practice but ya gotta do what's ya gotta do, and me underneath with spanners(wrenches) and a large screwdriver to provide leverage to open up the two surfaces the beading needed to go between. Loosened off all the fasteners then Wade inserted the beading starting from the front. It didn't take long to find out I hadn't loosened all the fasteners, there's one hidden by the mudguard bracket I'd missed. That attended to the rest of the insertion proceeded smoothly. Went back to the start point though as it wasn't quite right, some further fastener loosening rectified that. Then starting from the lower rear of the mudguard(fender) tightened up all the fasteners with Wade ensuring the beading was positioned correctly. Had to have Wade hold one spanner(wrench) for the inside nut holding one fastener, many of the others are either accessible from undercar or have captive nuts and therefore didn't require a second set of hands. Wade also fixed the blinkers, well I thought they required a fix. The right rear blinker bulb had blown and I replaced it but after that the left blinkers appeared to work intermittently while the rights didn't work at all. Wade got into position under the dash, checked the fuses, all were good. Then in operating the blinker stalk discovered that by pulling back on the stalk they worked but if this wasn't done they didn't. Comes to me now that, this little quirk, had been discovered a year or so ago, but Mal forgot this little trick. Also reinstalled the PI badge to the badge bar and more firmly secured the front number plate. Still have to reinstall the mudguard(fender) trim spears and the left side bonnet(hood) catch and mechanism.

Note - Hardly any pictures of what happened to the Coupe. I left my camera on its front seat when it went up on the hoist and didn't recover it till much later.

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Thursday 7th March 2013

Not much to report today. Pitstop only at the workshop this afternoon where I found there was nothing there to occupy my time. In the morning Wade had been fiddling around with The Fossil's interior some more, the pedals in particular I believe. That was because work on Roy has stalled. Although the cap and points arrived from helpful PACA members they weren't the right ones. Now waiting on the same parts to arrive from Max who Wade had been in contact with earlier in the piece and ordered the parts from anyway. The PACA's members parts were to be a stopgap until the other parts arrived. But......there's still some doubt about whether the parts from Max will fit because the distributor doesn't have a tag on it. To hopefully overcome that hurdle Wade had emailed pic's to Max(JD?) when ordering and was told it looked like an Autolite, but you're never really sure. Adding to any doubts Wade has about the electrical items on Roy, the starter motor has a Delco Remy tag on the body and an Autolite tag on the dust cover covering the brushes. Left Wade to it after Ross arrived. Ross's '36 Super Eight Coupe is expected to land in Sydney in about 3 weeks time and should be coming to the workshop shortly thereafter for Wade to get it up and running. While last night at PACA's Committee meeting I was able to pass on to Mat the radio from his '34, recently repaired by Wade, it needed a new valve. And speaking of the Committee meeting, with both Noel and DavidM there, this little matter was resolved:
Quote: A phone call from Noel to the cars owner confirmed it as an IHW! David 1, Noel 0.

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Saturday 9th March 2013

Had a call from pepepackard, aka Fred, last night. Seems he could have a spare Autolite 6 cylinder distributor cap and possibly points and a rotor as well. However Fred also advised there were 2 different sized caps for the Autolite distributors, he runs Delco-Remy in his '37 115C, and could I measure the diameter of Roy's? Well, this morning I could and did, cap is 88mm in diameter, measured outside edge to outside edge. It is also 80mm high, measured bottom of base to top of coil wire post. Pic's and info forwarded to Fred for assessment. Called Wade this morning and on telling him this he advised that Richard, Roy's owner, thinks he has a spare cap that came when he bought Roy. Wade is going to drive over today to collect it. So, hopefully, amongst the caps, points and rotors from Fred/Richard/Max there'll be at least one set that fits Roy's distributor. Reason being that Roy is scheduled to start the journey to Phillip Island early next Saturday morning. 16th March, for the 15th National Packard Rally.

Speaking of the National Rally, a convoy of mainly Sydney based PACA members will convene at Pheasants Nest, about 60 miles south of Sydney. Convoy members are Kath and I in our '41 120 Club Coupe, Starliner, Chris, in his '54 Clipper Super Club Sedan, packard34, Mat, probably in his '34 Eight Sedan, the '55 Caribbean not being ready, Michael in his '54 Convertible Coupe, PAC052, Jeff, and Margaret in their '52 200 Deluxe Touring Sedan, Richard in Roy, a '39 110 Convertible Coupe and Wendy in Emily a '37 115C Sport Coupe. From Pheasants Nest it's "only" another 550 miles to Phillip Island. The trip is being done with an overnight stop at Glenrowan, about 340 miles from Sydney, where Australia's most famous Bushranger(Outlaw) Ned Kelly made his last stand. I will report on the trips to and from the National Rally as well as the Rally itself in the Shows and Events Forum.

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Don't forget I have two spare distributors that could use the parts I sent

Tuesday 12th March 2013

A surprise greeted me on arrival at the workshop as I drove up the driveway, with the sight of Chris, starliner, and his '54 Clipper Super Club Sedan in the carpark. However what started out as a pleasant day didn't take long to turn round soon after my arrival. First John informs me he's just been called by Wade who's about to call me because Roy has, in Rolls Royce parlance, "failed to proceed"! No sooner than John had informed than Wade called who confirmed those words of doom, but ever the realist, was also thinking ahead. I was issued with instructions to remove Big Red from it's place in the workshop so Chris's '54 could take it's place on the hoist. Chris having brought the '54 over so he could get it onto the hoist for a pre Phillip Island inspection and greasing. In some ways I felt priviliged because I'd never experienced the opportunity of driving Big Red before. After Rick moved a car out of the way I "drove" Big Red out, parked her in the carpark then Chris backed his '54 into the workshop. Once inside the '54 went up on the hoist and work underneath began. First was attention to one of the bolts holding on the Ultramatic's pan, it had broken off! Chris was very adept, centre-punching a hole in the stump of the remainder of the threaded body of the bolt, drilling a couple of progressively bigger holes then using an ezi-out to extract the offending piece of metal. Then I dived into the junk box and found a bolt, complete with lock washer, of the right thread, size and length to take it's place. First job done Chris then looked to find the source of an annoying banging emanating from somewhere towards the rear of the car which he'd been experiencing. This turned out to be the exhaust pipe touching the forward part of the differential floor tunnel. The '54 doesn't have a correct muffler and in it's installation the bend had been located just an inch or so too far forward. Chris was going to go straight to his exhaust guy on his way home for rectification to occur, but I'll come back to that.

It was about this time that Wade and Roy arrived, rather ingloriously, courtesy of a Tilt Tray Tow Truck. The Distributor cap that Wade had picked up from Richard on Saturday was the right one and, yesterday, Wade had driven Roy home as part of the usual Complete Packard Customer Assurance Program test drive process. By the way, thanks to both Fred, pepepackard, and John, Appin, for your offers of parts assistance. Roy went home with Wade last night without any dramas but coming in this morning, after stopping to put the top up because inclement weather was raising it's ugly head, failed! The electrical system was dead, at least at the dash, but on hot-wiring Roy, Wade still couldn't get Roy to start even though it cranked freely. Roy was winched off the TTTT then pushed in behind Big Red to await further attention.

Inside the workshop Chris was checking and tightening bolts to ensure all was well for the trip. And then Noel, in Fleurette, arrived together with some of the people I'd met at Hershey last year. With Noel were DAF, Eric, Louis and Louis's wife Ellen, they had made the trip down-under to among other things attend our National Packard Rally. But what were they doing at the workshop? Besides the social aspects of the visit there was a sinister undertone, Fleurette had developed a "noise" since last at the Workshop. It had been noticed when Noel had fired her up a few days earlier and it was decided that a trip to the good Doctor, aka Wade, was in order. So after listening aurally to the noise, listening with the help of a mechanics stethoscope(in this case a prybar!) and then disengaging plug leads one by one and taking note of changes a diagnosis of a piston problem was given by the good Doctor, possibly a broken piston. The Doctor also recommended immediate hospitalisation, although treatment cannot begin until after returning from Phillip Island. This then created an immediate logistics problem, how was Noel going to continue to offer his guests the hospitality they were used to. No problem says Mal, Wade can lend them his dual cab Ute! Fortunately Wade was agreeable to my outrageous suggestion, he's a good mate, and a little later Noel et al were able to continue to sample the sights and sounds that Sydney has to offer.

While this was going on Chris continued work under the '54 even finding grease points he couldn't remember seeing before. There's a different, and much more comfortable and advantageous, aspect to be being able to walk and work under a car than lying there on your back. Chris, in his inspections and tightenings, had also found the exhaust tailpipe has holes in it. Because of this the tailpipe, and bend over the diff, will now be replaced instead of just a minor repair to relocate the bend away from the body. With Chris finished on the '54 and it down from the hoist Wade, on seeing the cavernous boot(trunk) and the possibility it presented, co-opted Chris into taking a 320 block with him to Phillip Island so it can be reunited with it's owner. I also suggested that Chris might be able to help in another way, I'm very free it seems in offering other peoples services or equipment without being directly involved. This was in some of the woodwork required for The Fossil, to wit the rear floor and the floor to the boot(trunk). Both are timber and Chris, being a builder, with the requisite knowledge and skills was also happy to oblige this request.
And speaking of taking things to Phillip Island. I have "volunteered" to help lessen the luggage load of DAF and friends by transporting part of their load to Phillip Island, their means of transport having shrunk by one following Fleurettes enforced hospitalisation.

Turned then to Roy, still cranking over on the hot-wire but not firing. Checked for spark at the distributor, yes, and at the plugs, also yes. Then checked for fuel, none! If I remember correctly this also happened with Roy on a previous visit some time ago, obviously the gauge isn't accurate. So Mal scoots off for fuel, we dump it in the tank, but still nothing. The pump's not pulling it through from the tank. After pressurising the tank, and starting on the hot-wire, at last success, Roy runs! But still wont start from the dash. Had to leave Wade to it at that point so I'll find out tomorrow what developed.

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